Tufte cares about the integrity of numbers. He treats information reverently. He wants us to present information that is beautiful, meaningful, and accurate. To assume, (as Salon writes),that we have a smart, curious audience willing to explore complex information as long as it’s presented with grace and clarity.

He battles ‘against decoration replacing substance’, and reveals the deceptions which bad graphs make possible. Chartjunk is his term for anything that’s there just for embellishment, and his dictum that we should ‘minimise the non-data ink’ (ie ensure every line or dot carries meaning) is a rule for all communicators to live by.

Tufte is a philosopher king who reigns over his field largely because he invented it. For years, graphic designers were regarded as decorators…Tufte introduced … math and science to the discipline and…over the years his influence has changed the way places like the Wall Street Journal and NASA display data.